Calendar of Events

Guest Lecture: Michael Osterholm

Sponsored by Biology Department

Date: Thursday, February 23, 2012

Time: 9:40 am

Location: Valders Hall of Science—Room 206

Best known for his work as director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Osterholm has done extensive restoration work on Brook Creek, a cold-water trout stream on property he owns in Allamakee County, Iowa. A native of Waukon, Iowa, he is an active member of northeast Iowa's Driftless Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Sponsored by the Luther biology department, Osterholm's presentation at Luther will provide students and area residents with insights on how well designed and successful restoration projects have implications for dealing with erosion damage along the region's waterways, including the Upper Iowa River which flows through the Luther campus. The college and the Decorah community have been damaged by major flood events three times in the past 20 years, and coldwater stream restorations in the region's watersheds can significantly affect flood events.

Osterholm's restoration work on Brook Creek was the focus of a feature published in the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette "Green Gazette" edition in November 2011. Orlan Love, environmental reporter for the Gazette described the seven-year Brook Creek project that transformed a "ditch through a cornfield" into a tall grass prairie stream that now supports a population of brook trout, Iowa's only native species of trout